Beauty Mate is on Target for Valentines Day 03/02/2010

Our first retail order - it is a bit like training your team for a couple of years and then sending them out to play in their first big game.

Packing the Target order was an experience in itself - we figured that as it was our first, we would be best to experience the logisitcs of it all so we would be best placed to brief a distribution company on how to take hold of the reigns moving forward - all good in theory. The reality was a team of 6 volunteers / slaves / fools / fabulous friends who hung in there for two days as we packed 1800 gift packs - rewarding, fulfilling stuff! Happy now to handball it to a distribution company that has now been locked in for future orders.

Early Monday morning, August 17th, and the truck arrives at the warehouse. We rally a friend (think that term is now wearing thin with him after packing the order as well) to help load the boxes onto the truck - 150 in total with a flight of sixteen stairs down from the warehouse to ground level - great to get the workout for the day done - gotta focus on the positive. Finally the truck is all loaded and we wave a fond farewell.

So then we wait for a few days as the goods are dispatched to Target Superstores around Australia - 50 stores in total. No calls so we presume all is good.

We hesitantly make our way into the city on Sunday August 23rd just to check out whether they have arrived is store yet - supposedly there by Monday 24th but you never know - they could have arrived early. Target in Bourke Street is huge - we finally locate the cosmetics section and begin our search. Nothing on the rows of shelves that house all of the other female brand spin offs (you know what I mean - the ones that included the blokes as an after thought) mustn't be here yet. But wait - there is a large, prominent display area right out in the open set up especially for Father's Day gifts - and there we are! And boy - we sure stand out from the pack! So many brands choose black, navy, grey etc to represent products for blokes, which we thank them for, because it makes our red and pearl white tubes and jars shine brightly.

Our first gift packs are the 'Nude Nut Pack' for those who are follicley challenged, the 'Good on you' pack and the 'Hair Travel Pack'.

We walk away with pride, elation, anxiety and fear - we are now out there but will the rest of the world embrace the Beauty Mate brand?

Who knows? We hope so as we are giving it a red hot crack and from Target we take on the world. Trademarks are in place in all major countries and Austrade is shaping up to back us all the way.

Beauty Mate - good on you!

Gearing up for the footy season 17/02/2010

The footy season is on it's way, you can almost feel the MCG gearing up to take the weight of the 2010 season. With rumours of secret deals being exposed it is certainly already shaping up to be an interesting year.  Richmond versus Carlton kicks off the season on March 25 at the MCG, Carlton were finals finishers last year whilst everyone will have their eyes on Richmond to see how they go minus Richo. It will surely be a walkover for Carlton who faired much better in 2009 than the now very young Richmond side.

Two new clubs Western Sydney and Gold Coast make their debut this year promising to put even more pressure of the current clubs in particular those struggling in previous years. All eyes will be on 2009 Premiers Geelong to see if they have another year of domination and can make it a trifecta come finals time.

With drama's on and off the field it is certainly shaping up to be a season of highs and lows. It will all of course come down to the final siren on that one day in September.